Everton manager Sam Allardyce has admitted that he is "very angry" at his players following their "unacceptable" performance during this evening's 5-1 defeat at the hands of Arsenal.
The Gunners ran riot in the first half at the Emirates Stadium to take a 4-0 lead into the break, with three of their goals coming in the opening 20 minutes.
Everton failed to pull off a similar shock to the one Swansea City produced against Arsenal on Tuesday night, although Allardyce believes that is due to the players rather than his tactics.
"You set out to block the areas Arsenal like to play in, we had the same game plan that Swansea had on Tuesday. We studied how Swansea played, how defensively sound they were and how they limited Arsenal to very few chances," he told BBC Sport.
"Swansea only had 30% possession but created chances, but I may as well have been talking in a foreign language. We didn't implement my plans either defensively or offensively and the game was dead and buried.
"It doesn't matter what system I pick, it's about players playing to their best. You can show them but it's up to the players. I'm not frustrated, I'm angry, very angry at the players performing to that level. It's unacceptable.
"There was one player that showed anything like what we needed and that was young Tom (Davies) when he came on. He made us play, he got amongst the Arsenal midfield, he got us going forward. We got a goal and could have got another one, and then the fifth goal...where was our defence? I'm baffled, and I need to say to the players 'have a look at yourselves, look at your mistakes and how you can improve'. There's no hiding place."
The defeat leaves Everton 10th in the Premier League table, now seven points clear of the relegation zone.
Barney Corkhill
